Karaktärisering av hund TK1 för användning som tumörmarkör
Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) is an intracellular enzyme involved in ?the salvage pathway? where the uncomplete parts of DNA are transformed into DNA precursors. The expression of TK1 is cell cykle specific, with the highest level during S-phase when DNA-synthesis is most active. One kind of TK1 is present in serum and an increase in TK1 activity in serum is due to either the level of DNA synthesis in the body or the number of cells dying in a state of replication. This can be used and is used as a marker for prognosis and evaluation of treatment in human patients with leukemia and lymphoma. A study has been performed in which the test evaluated for human medicine has been used on serum from dogs with malignant lymphoma. The purpose of the study was to evaluate wether serum levels of TK1 could be used as prognostic tumour marker in dogs as well as humans and the results are promising. The test commersially available today has been evaluated for human medicine and uses radioactivity, which makes it neither practical nor clinically useful in veterinary medicine. For this reason, a method enabling a simple and less expensive test is required. The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of making specific anti- dog TK1 antibodies to be used in an ELISA. Antibodies have been produced by immunizing rabbits with a synthetic piece of a peptide of dog TK1. Serum from these rabbits was collected and mixed with dog cell extract with TK1 activity. The reduced activity has been used as a measurement of the antibodies capacity to bind dog TK1. This study shows that it is possible to produce antibodies specific to canine TK1 with adequate binding capacity. It has also been shown that these antibodies bind both human and canine TK1. These findings pave the way for further studies of these antibodies in order to develop an ELISA that is both cheap and reliable.